Down Your Throat

      "Shouldn't we be trying to tell them about Jesus?" I asked, an eager eighth-grader and would-be evangelist. 

     Mrs. Larson looked at me as if I had suggested we lift their wallets.  "Of course not!" She chided me.  "Around here, we don't shove the gospel down people's thorats like you want to!"  Everyone around us looked at me with that same reproachful expression (obviously copying our teacher and trying to be with the "in" crowd).

     I felt ashamed, and yet also confused.  All my life, I had been taught the value of mission work, both nationally and internationally.  While they didn't know it, the only hope the unsaved had was the obedience of Christians to faithfully obey the Great Commission.  Love for others should propel us to share the Gospel with them, must like offering a hungry beggar lunch.  Mrs. Larson's response made me feel crazy.  Was I wrong to suggest we share the Gospel?

     Mrs. Larson continued eying me suspiciously, while smiling at a few of her pets in the class.  "We're going to just live it.  That's all we should do.  We'll live our faith in front of others, and that's really what it means to witness."

     Living it?  My thirteen-year-old mind puzzled over this.  The Apostle Paul hadn't just "lived it" to people.  He had fearlessly shared Jesus with everyone who would listen (and even those who didn't want to listen!).  And in my own heart, a force stronger than myself compelled me to talk about Jesus with those who didn't know Him.  Just acting nice to someone could never, ever quench that need in my heart to get the Gospel out, nor could it quench the spiritual thirst in the hearts of the people we were trying to reach. And on top of that, the way Mrs. Larson was shaming me and not showing me any consideration wasn't exactly a shining Christian witness in any event.  Did she really think she was so good at living it that the world would automatically be converted?  Even Paul and Peter weren't that good!  They still needed to explain the message.  This little message here was more where my mindset was at.

                            

     Not quite as eternity-minded, our junior high youth group eventually settled on doing a canned food drive.  Our slogan (which Mrs. Larson came up with, and her pets all thought was brilliant, but I thought was idiotic) was, Give all you can, at least give a can!  

     Mrs. Larson's accusation really stung, that by wanting to share Christ, I was "shoving it down people's throats."  To this day, I hate that phrase more than any other.  Literally, I hate it more than any other phrase in English, and only partly because it was used to humiliate me in junior high.  It is used inaccurately.  

     First of all, we are commanded to preach the Gospel multiple times and places in the New Testament.  Jesus' final words to His followers before His ascension were, Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. (Mark 16:15).  Peter and John, when asked to stop preaching the Gospel, replied, we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. (Acts 4:20).  I very much relate to the Apostle Paul in First Corinthians 9:16, For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!  Later, Paul urged Timothy, As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (Second Timothy 4:5).  So the Bible would have sided with eighth-grade me, not Mrs. Larson.  Secondly, though, there is a big difference between lovingly sharing, and shoving it down someone's throat.  Mrs. Larson (and many others) fail to make that distinction.  What does it look like to shove something down someone's throat?

     Our cat Jack was recently given a prescription for a bacterial infection.  We had to administer one pill a day (in fact, we still do, as his vet prescribed two more weeks, just to make sure he is completely better).  Getting this cat to take his medicine is a task!  My husband Walter is pictured below, with Jack.  You will see Jack is wrapped up in a towel.  There is a reason.  Jack fights taking his medicine so much that Walter and I both have some permanent scars on our hands now!  Walter has to wrap him up, pinning his front paws down.  Then, he forces Jack's mouth open, while I drop the pill in (I have to get it all the way in, trying to get near the throat so he'll swallow it, but it's hard, because if I get too close, he bits me!).  Then, Walter holds him still and forces his mouth closed so Jack will be forced to suck on the pill until it dissolves and goes down his throat.  If we don't do all of this, Jack will spit it out, and the medicine will do him no good.  That, my friends, is what it looks like when we shove something down someone's throat.  How many people who preach the Gospel are being that forceful and rude?  Almost none!  The bigger problem is that people often just don't evangelize.  In my life, I have met one person that I felt was way too forceful in their evangelism.  This person held up very condemning signs, and told passersby what bad sinners they were.  That might be considered shoving it down people's throats.  

     Our shoving the pill down Jack's throat is motivated by love for him and a desire for his wellbeing, even though he can't see it.  When someone shares the Gospel a little overzealously, their motive is still love for the lost, and that should never be shamed.  But most people who share Christ aren't doing it like that.  Most are doing it much more gently.  More like inviting someone to a dinner.  If I were standing outside a restaurant, handing out gift certificates for free meals to passersby, would they accuse me of showing food down these people's throats?  No!  Most would be grateful and excited to get a free meal.  Even if someone wasn't interested, they would probably still express gratitude, and walk on politely.  That is how most evangelism is done.  A very far cry from giving Jack his pill!  We aren't bamboozling anyone and making them hear us against their will, as they fight us.   We are engaging people, and giving them that opportunity.  What they do with it is on them, but we give that chance.  How is that "shoving it down their throats?"  It isn't.  That's just how people are programmed to accuse those who share the Gospel, because it turns attention away from their own sin and lack of obedience to the Great Commission.  

     By the way, Jack is much better, as seen below!  Showing it down their throats isn't even always a bad thing!